On Sept. 27, Touchstones Nelson and the Nelson Food Cupboard partnered on the Fall Family Fair and Fruit Festival.
In the days leading up to the event, volunteers from Harvest Rescue, a program of the Nelson Food Cupboard, picked apples from an orchard in Blewett.
On the day of the event, the Kootenay Local Agriculture Society donated a juice press, and Harvest Rescue made and sold the fresh juice.
As with all other past Family Fairs at Touchstones Nelson, a number of art activities for children happened throughout the building.
However, this was the first Family Fair which used the outdoor lane-way between the post office and Touchstones Nelson.
This space proved to be ideal for sound and created a cozy, festive atmosphere, where vendors sold fruity desserts and the agriculture society set up an information booth to highlight their local agriculture initiatives.
Musicians Steve Garth and Roger Lucky played, as well as the band First After the Fire.
Visitors gave a total of $200 in donations, half of which were given to the Nelson Food Cupboard’s Harvest Rescue program.
The inspiration for the fruit focus of the event came from Touchstones Nelson’s current exhibition Lost Orchards: A History of Fruit Farming in the West Kootenay. The title of the exhibition is inspired by Joan Lang’s 2003 book Lost Orchards: Vanishing Fruit Farms of the West Kootenay. Lang gives a talk about her book at Touchstones Nelson on Saturday at 1 p.m. The talk is free with the cost of admission to the gallery.
Steve Garth and Roger Lucky played at the Touchstones Fall Family Fair and Fruit Festival.
